Letters to the Editor	Letters Archive

Porn Star Praises and Plugs

Thanks for [Christopher Hogan's] kind review of Reform School: Confidential in the March '98 issue of The Guide.

I have never had as much fun on a set as I did working with Dan Cross and Kyle McKenna. Cross asked me to pull out all the stops and to give the scene a warped edge. Kyle was up for it, so away we went. It was complete improvisation-- from the flirting with the nurse to the shoe sniffing. I'm pleased you thought I gave a "wonderfully demented performance."

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Another recent video is A Love Story and its companion (which I think is even better) The Making Of A Love Story. Sam Abdul of Forum Studios teamed me up with Matt Bradshaw for a romantic story told in a series of flashbacks. The documentary is one of the few videos that steps behind the scenes to give a glimpse into the personalities of the actors.

Out this summer is Lessons Learned from All Worlds. I play a college professor with no scruples. You get to see the new version of me-- 20 more pounds of muscle and a hairy chest (I am over this shaved body look). Let me know what you think.

Jackson Phillips

somewhere in the USA

If You Prick Us, Do We Not Bleed?

Regarding laws aimed at oppressing Gypsies ["The Gypsy Law," March 1998], I know of many places, cities, and towns in the USA that has the laws like the Megan law, some are even worst!

My name is John and I'm also Gypsie. I live in Las Vegas, a place for everyone-- but gypsies. We are not very welcome here, just like everywhere else. It's hard to rent a room in the big casinos, and much harder to get a space at any RV parks. We can't use the restrooms in some RV parks. Gypsys are not welcome at some hospitals, restaurants, and many more places. Worst of all, we Gypsies aren't welcome in the Olympics and we have many young men and women, and not one of them will have a chance. Just because we don't have a country doesn't mean we are not a race!

gypsylamb@webtv.net

Pleased in Ohio

Kudos on your story about Northeast Ohio's hot gay nightlife scene [March 1998]. It is nice to see it done accurately for a change. We have seen work by other publications that makes it obvious that they haven't a clue on what's going on in Ohio. On behalf of all my customers (and yours): Thanks on the great job!

(For more Ohio-area info check out our web site http://www.exposemag. com)

Brian J. Lyons, Editor

Exposé Magazine

Cleveland, Ohio

expose@raex.com

Brit Appalled by Yankee Rudeness

I thoroughly enjoy your magazine and read it every time I have an opportunity to find it here in London. However, I was horrified to see that you featured [a certain bar] and [a certain barman] in your recent story about Boston.

Just after Christmas my mate and I spent a holiday in New York City and Boston. One evening we stopped into [that certain bar]; after waiting 20 minutes for [that certain barman] to serve us (despite the fact that there were only about 10 people in the place), we asked him for directions to [another bar] which we had learned had moved to a new location. With an evil scowl on his face, this fellow responded by saying, "What do I look like? A fucking tour guide? If you want to find your way around, buy a map."

Although we found everyone in Boston to be polite and rather friendly, this incident put a damper on our evening. I have traveled around the world and have never experienced such behavior from anyone charged with serving the public. We would caution your readers to avoid [this place] and its rude server behind the bar.

C. W.

London, England

Sorry you didn't get the service you were looking for. Maybe the surly barman thought you to be the type eager for rough handling. Or maybe he was having a tough day. Without making excuses for his rudeness, surely such a peripatetic type as yourself can remember worse treatment from someone somewhere at sometime (if not, count yourself lucky). One tip: pack The Guide and have its useful city maps handy!

Overflowing

Would it be possible to run my ad every issue since it is from overseas? I do enjoy receiving letters from all over and hope to make some genuine friends with whom to share my feelings.

P.T.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

We have a backlog of hundreds of ads from overseas waiting to be published, so your ad will appear in only two or three issues. Paying for the ad (just $25 for three months) is the only way to guarantee that it appears in the magazine. (Be sure to check out MaleBox on-line at www.guidemag.com for even more personals from all over the world.)

Hypocritical Fundamentalists

Regarding the gay gene debate, I think it would be a mistake for anyone to assume that this is any more than an academic discussion since a gay gene may or may not exist. To assert that anyone can make a conscious choice regarding sexual preference is ludicrous, but that seems to be what the religious right is saying in order to justify denying gay people rights. But freedom of religion is protected, yet no one has suggested that there is a genetic predisposition to fundamentalism (other than one more generally associated with stupidity).

Sexual preference can't be a matter of conscious choice or we wouldn't have so many gay teens committing suicide.

It's also important to remember that they very same people who object to "homosexual proselytizing" are people who go from door to door, hand out pamphlets, and send missionaries to backward places to prey on the most ignorant and superstitious of the world's unfortunates. Are there no limits to the religious right's hypocrisy?

Paul McCarthy

Montreal, Quebec

Don't be so quick to embrace the notion that sexual preference and desire is genetically determined. Those eager to claim a genetic basis for complex human behaviors have been shown to be over-reaching in their claims time and time again. Arguments bolstered by supposed demonstrations of biological determinism are often employed by the status quo's elite to justify their position on top of the social heap. European scientists have often "proved" that biology shows them to be the smartest, men have "demonstrated" why women are biologically unfit for certain social roles, and eugenicists on the right and left have rallied for extermination and sterilization of those deemed unfit by "science."

Capacity for an astonishing range of behaviors is what characterizes human beings. To say that there are genes for "aggression" should not justify war or violence, for just as surely there is a genetic capacity for "cooperation" and "peaceful co-existence." To suggest that one's social position or behavior is genetically determined is scientifically fraudulent and guarantees pernicious political mischief by those eager to justify withholding resources from the poor ("it's a waste, they're programmed to be poor"), not educating the ignorant ("why bother, they're genetically stupid"), and harshly controlling the destiny of others ("we're in charge because we're biologically superior, we know best").

The capacity for homosexual response resides in all people; that's precisely why our socialization mechanisms employ such vicious homophobia to suppress it. Ostracizing, beating, and killing fags and dykes serve to scare folks out of the shameless, indiscriminate, more dog-like sexuality that characterizes unsocialized behavior. Currently, our raw sexuality is restricted into narrow channels constrained by brutal laws and savage social strictures. Gay liberation seeks to replace such inhumane and irrational regulation with rules based on love and respect, not simply out of a libertarian impulse, but because society will also function better when individuals' sexual drives are allowed more and freer forms of expression.

Redecorating His Cell?

More than satisfied with your magazine, but I am not renewing my subscription since we are only allowed so many periodicals in the joint and I would like to check out Better Homes and Gardens (just kidding).

T.S.

Indiana State Prison

Michigan City, Indiana

Jealous Lover

Greetings to everyone at The Guide.

A few days ago I wrote to you asking that you help me find happiness through an ad [in the MaleBox personals, also available at www.guidemag. com].

Forgive me, but now I am back together with my partner of many years and we are very happy, so I must ask that you stop my ad. He hates that I put it in, and I should respect his way of thinking. So if you could look through the ads submitted and remove mine, it would be appreciated. I will, of course, remain a fan of The Guide.

From the legendary land of the Caribbean,

J.S.

Havana, Cuba